Publications

June 1977 (Revised September 1992)
Case

Sorenson Research Co. (Abridged)

By: Steven C. Wheelwright

Presents the issues facing a high volume, high margin (but lightweight) medical products business. The company is trying to improve its inventory control to reduce inventory investment and improve service. The present multi-site inventory system is described and major... View Details

Keywords: Business Earnings; Investment; Volume; Service Delivery; Supply Chain; Performance Improvement; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

24 Feb 2014
News

Why Raising Retail Pay Is Good for the Gap

Keywords: human capital; minimum wage; Retail Trade

October 2021
Supplement

Diversifying P&G's Supplier Base (B)

By: Kris Ferreira, Kym Lew Nelson, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Sarah Mehta

This (B) case accompanies the (A) case of the same title. View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Model; Business Organization; Family Business; Joint Ventures; Demographics; Diversity; Ethnicity; Race; Fairness; Ownership; Supply Chain Management; Consumer Products Industry; Service Industry; United States; Ohio

Starting with one 40-room hotel, Hilton created a massive hotel franchising chain through selective acquisitions including the Waldorf-Astoria. By the end of the 1970s, there were about 250 Hilton Hotels around the globe and 136 Hilton... View Details

Keywords: Restaurants & Lodging

Web

C.D. Spangler | Baker Library | Bloomberg Center | Harvard Business School

Transcript (PDF) C. D. “Dick” Spangler, HBS 1956, has been a successful entrepreneur in several industries, including construction, a chain of motels, and banking. He also had a large investment in RJR Nabisco. From 1986 to 1997, he... View Details

2020
Case

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation: Accelerating a Circular Economy for Plastic Packaging

By: Andrew J. Hoffman

Plastic has become essential to global day-to-day activities, yet it is also causing extreme environmental degradation. Many leaders in the plastics industry are starting to question its sustainability. This case presents insights into the future of the plastic... View Details

Keywords: Plastic Waste; Environmental Sustainability; Cooperation; Supply Chain Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Consumer Products Industry

August 2015
Teaching Note

Rana Plaza (C): Primark and Victim Compensation

By: John A. Quelch

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility; Business Ethics; Human Resource Management; Workplace Safety; Safety; Working Conditions; Supply Chain Management; Ethics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Human Resources

Weis was instrumental in managing the growth of Weis Markets, often noted as the most profitable supermarket chain in the United States. Weis took the company public in 1965 and went on to produce over 25 consecutive years of successful... View Details

Keywords: Retail

Curtis L. Carlson

Carlson was the first entrepreneur to develop a loyalty program for the grocery chain through the issuance of Gold Bond trading stamps. What began as a simple loyalty program for grocers in the Midwest grew into one of the largest service... View Details

Keywords: Services

28 Jul 2014
Research & Ideas

Eyes Shut: The Consequences of Not Noticing

Editor's note: Behavioral economist Max H. Bazerman decided to pursue the subject of noticing after realizing that he wasn't very good at it himself. "The truth is that I was truly terrible at noticing," says Bazerman, the Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of... View Details

Keywords: by Max H. Bazerman; Retail

Edward W. Scripps

Beginning with the purchase of the Cleveland Penny Press, a cheep mass-market publication in 1878, Scripps went on to build the first newspaper chain in the United States. Through a series of acquisitions, he formed United Press... View Details

Keywords: Publishing & Print Media

Julius Rosenwald

Though Richard Sears was the genius behind his company’s merchandise success, it was Rosenwald who set up the organizational structure necessary to help grow Sears into the largest retailer of the mid 1900s. Rosenwald established separate departments to handle each of... View Details

Keywords: Retail

Harold S. Geneen

Geneen diversified International Telephone and Telegraph through acquiring shares of companies ranging from the Sheraton Hotel Chain to the Hartford Insurance Company. Geneen grew his firm from $765 million to $8.5 billion in revenues to... View Details

Keywords: Communications

Donald G. Fisher

Fisher opened his first store in 1969 selling exclusively Levi’s jeans. Five years later, Fisher created his own line of women’s jeans, called Gap jeans. Fisher expanded his company to include 2,300 retail stores in the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the U.... View Details

Keywords: Retail

March 1993
Case

Liz Claiborne, Inc. and Ruentex Industries, Ltd. (Abridged)

By: Roy D. Shapiro and Marie-Therese M. Flaherty

Details the evolution of a value-creating supplier-buyer partnership. Describes the buyer's (Liz Claiborne) manufacturing and marketing strategy, and details the workings of the firm's relationship with an important Taiwanese supplier of piece goods (Ruentex Industries... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Production; Supply Chain Management; Alliances; Value Creation; Manufacturing Industry

October 1996 (Revised April 1997)
Case

Tweeter etc.

By: John T. Gourville and George Wu

In the early 1990s, Tweeter etc., a small regional retailer of higher-end audio and video equipment, faced increasing competitive pricing pressures from several large regional and national consumer electronics chains. In response, in 1993, they introduced "Automatic... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Customer Focus and Relationships; Price; Market Entry and Exit; Supply Chain Management; Competition; Electronics Industry; Retail Industry

02 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

‘Retail Revolution’ Excerpt: The Scale of the Ecommerce Threat

apart. “If this cycle continues, whole retail chains can quickly become full of zombie stores” Taken all together, lower price points, decreased traffic, and smaller baskets means lower sales and margins for brick-and-mortar stores. Given... View Details

Keywords: Re: Rajiv Lal; Retail

January 2009
Case

When Supply is of Public Interest: Roche & Tamiflu

The case focuses on the challenges of Roche maintaining a supply network for a global influenza pandemic response initiative based on its antiviral drug Tamiflu. The Roche group is a 40 billion CHF company consisting of a pharmaceutical division and a diagnostic... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Health Pandemics; Distribution; Logistics; Production; Supply Chain Management; Performance Capacity; Pharmaceutical Industry